Fitness expert Jillian Michaels has slammed the ketogenic diet, which has increased in popularity in recent months.
Michaels opened up about the trendy high-fat, low-carb diet in a video for Women’s Health and said it shouldn’t be followed.
“I don’t understand,” she said. “Like, why would anyone think this is a good idea?”
The keto diet has followers eating a 4:1 ratio of fats to carbs, with the ultimate goal of burning fat for energy instead of carbohydrates. Many, including Jenna Jameson, have touted the diet as a great weight-loss plan, but Michaels doesn’t agree.
“You know what we need to do? All fat and animal protein!” the former “Biggest Loser” trainer said. “No! Bad plan. For a million reasons.”
Michaels, 44, implored the idea that people need to eat a variety of healthy foods to meet bodies’ needs.
“Your cells, your macromolecules, are literally made up of protein, fat, carbohydrates, nucleic acids,” she explained. “When you do not eat one of the three macronutrients — those three things I just mentioned — you’re starving yourselves. “Those macronutrients serve a very important purpose for your overall health and wellbeing,” she continued. “Each and every one of them.”
Registered dietician Brigitte Zeitlin also warned Page Six that the keto diet should not be followed, as it’s “not sustainable for long periods of time.”
Zeitlin explained that the keto diet was first created by doctors to help treat children with epilepsy and other seizure disorders that medication ceased to treat. She also echoed Michaels’ statement that the high-fat, low-carb method will deprive the body of crucial nutrients it needs to thrive.
“We get our energy and our fuel from food, so if you’re going long periods of time without eating, fueling, how are you going to be energized?” Zeitlin mused. “If you’re not eating all the foods, you’re going to be deficient in various vitamins and minerals and lacking energy.”
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